Earth in our handsENVS 1000

WATER

WHAT IS AN ISSUE?The way in which the

world is imagined

determines at any particular moment what men will do.” Walter Lippman, Public

Opinion 1921

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and

Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97; also in Transformation : Arts, Communication, Environment (1950) by Harry Holtzman, p. 138

How do imagine

WATER?

Water

The world turns softlyNot to spill its lakes and rivers,The water is held in its armsAnd the sky is held in the water.What is water,That pours silverAnd can hold the sky?

Hilda Conkling

The Hydrological Cycle

How do we

study & research

WATER?

•Geology

•History

•Art

•Poetry

•Science

•Folklore

•Psychology

•Health

•Public Policy

•International Development

•Natural Disasters

•Education

•Marketing

•Etc….

From Ice-caps to glaciers to hidden

rivers

•Laurentide Ice Sheet

•Lake Aggasiz

•Toronto’s Hidden Rivers

Toronto’s

hidden Rivers

http://www.lostrivers.ca

The Human River

http://humanriver.ca/

Black Creek Storytelling Parade Blog

Poetry

Waterfall at Lu-shan by Li Po

Sunlight streams on the river stones.From high above, the river steadily plunges—

three thousand feet of sparkling water--the Milky Way pouring down from heaven.

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

Look, the treesare turningtheir own bodiesinto pillars of light,are giving off the richfragrance of cinnamonand fulfillment, the long tapersof cattailsare bursting and floating away overthe blue shoulders of the ponds,and every pond,no matter what itsname is, is nameless now.Every yeareverythingI have ever learned

 in my lifetimeleads back to this: the firesand the black river of losswhose other side is salvation,whose meaningnone of us will ever know.To live in this world you must be ableto do three things:to love what is mortal;to hold it against your bones knowingyour own life depends on it;and, when the time comes to let it go,to let it go.

Charon

The River Lethe

The Water of Life

•Aquae Vita

•Uisce Ba

•Whiskey

Water: Human Need or Human

Right?“Water is a public trust, a common heritage of people and nature, and a fundamental human right. ... We must challenge the notion that water is a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market. Those who are committed to the privatization of water ... are denying people a human right as basic as the air we breathe.”

Miguel D’Escoto, President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Maude barlow, senior advisor on water to UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto

Global consumption of bottled water:

- 154 billion litres in 2004, increase of 57% in 5 years - US drank 26 Billion litres in 2004 - Costs more than gasoline - Globally spend $100 Billion on bottled water, would cost $15 billion to

achieve MDG for water(UN's Millenium Development Goals -

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals)

Fossil fuels are used in packaging the

water: •polyethylene terephthalate requires

more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually

•Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle watereach year

After we drink the bottled water:

•86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter

• ''Bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit,'' EPI (Earth Policy Institute) said. France's Senate, it added, ''even advises people who drink bottled mineral water to change brands frequently because the added minerals are helpful in small amounts but may be dangerous in higher doses.''

• ''in a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water.'‘

Cochabamba, BoliviaWater War

Dam Politics: India’s Leading Activist Medha Patkar Takes on

Corporate Control of Water

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/23/dam_politics_indias_leading_activist_medha